THE ARAB REPUBLIC OF SYRIA CELEBRATES 60 YEARS OF ITS INDEPENDENCE
ArmRadio.am
17.04.2006 12:20
Today the Arab Republic of Syria is celebrating the 60th anniversary
of its independence.
On the occasion of the day, a congratulating address was issued by
Minister Plenipotentiary of the Embassy of Syria in the Republic of
Armenia, Doctor Mukhlis Farauni.
PanARMENIAN.Net
Armenian MOD Head: Chance to Settle Karabakh Conflict Not Lost
15.04.2006 20:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «The current format of visits of OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs to the region is conditioned with the state of health of the
Russian Ambassador,» Armenian Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan told
journalists. Commenting on Rambouillet talks between the Armenian and
Azeri presidents, the Armenian MOD Head remarked he does not consider
the chance to settle the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh lost. «The year
2006 being pre-election one in Armenia will not influence the course
of settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,» Serge Sargsyan said.
PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
THE IMPERATIVE Of A FAITH-SUSTAINED LIFE
(Dialogue with the youth- Number 5)
This year, in my Easter message I emphasized the crucial importance of
faith. I based my reflection on the following verse of St. Paul: “Let us
hold firmly to the faith we profess” (Hebr. 4: 14). As we spiritually
prepare ourselves to celebrate the Easter, I would like to share briefly
with our youth the following few points:
First, in its general understanding, faith is an inner drive of human being
to yearn for, and to have confidence in a reality that is beyond the scope
of human life. The human being is a limited creature endowed with a life
marked by limitations. Therefore, the desire for a transcendental reality,
in order to protect and support him, has been a permanent and salient
feature of human existence from its very inception. In the course of
history, each religion has identified its own object of faith, which has
provided the substance, context and basis of a religion’s life, thought and
vision. The object of faith could vary from religion to religion; yet faith
is a basic necessity. The human being cannot live without some sort of
faith.
For Christianity, faith is not a mere attachment to, or close interaction
with a supernatural reality; it is a full allegiance, dependence and
obedience to God. In fact, God is the source and the cause of human
existence and the sustaining power of earthly life in all its forms and
expressions. The true faith is a powerful force even if it is “as small as a
mustard seed”, it can “move the mountain from here to there” (Mt. 17: 20).
Second, the source of our faith is the Triune God who is not a conceptual
notion, an abstract idea or an unapproachable and ungraspable essence. God
is a living being, both immanent and transcendental, who has revealed
Himself to humanity in history. God has revealed and communicated Himself to
human beings through Jesus Christ. Therefore, faith for Christianity is of
an incarnational nature. In the Nican creed, which is recited during the
eucharistic celebration after the Gospel reading, the basic components and
aspects of our faith are clearly defined and articulated.
Indeed, the unique importance of faith has been at the heart of Christ’s
teachings and miracles: “Your faith has healed you” (Mt. 9: 22) was a major
message of Christ’s ministry. The healing, empowering, life-giving,
reconciling and transforming power of faith was also dominant in the events
pertaining to the early church in the apostolic period.
Third, being Christian does not mean merely knowing about our faith or even
witnessing about it. It means keeping firm our faith. This is the message of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The church, the mystical body of Christ, constantly
reminds her faithful to remain faithful to the Christian faith by responding
to its challenges, demands and implications. What does this mean?
a) It means placing the faith at the center of our life by making it the
guiding force of our thoughts, of our dreams, of our work. The Apostle says:
“We live by faith” (2 Cor. 5: 7). Without faith our life will lose its
integrity, its identity and purpose. To what extent faith is a living
reality in our lives? To what degree our thoughts, our commitments, our
projects, our relations, our friendships are determined and underpinned by
faith? Let us think about these questions. Our daily prayer must be: Lord,
increase and strengthen our faith. This is how we pray every day in the
Armenian Church. Let us always remember what Jesus said to His disciples:
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Mt. 21:
21).
b) It means preserving the integrity of our faith. The source of Christian
faith is the Bible as taught and interpreted by our church fathers, by
saints and theologians. Nowadays, I see a tendency to give pre-eminence to
the form rather than to the substance of faith. I see an emerging trend to
expose ourselves to the sort of perceptions and norms that are not
compatible with biblical teachings and with the traditions of our church.
Let us listen to what Christ says: “Watch out for false prophets. They come
to you in sheep’s’ clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves: (Mt. 7:
12).
c) It means participating fully and actively in the life and mission of the
church. The church is not an institution in the ordinary sense of the word;
it is essentially a community of faith. It is, therefore, by participating
in the life and witness of the community of faith that we deepen our faith.
Believing means belonging to the body of Christ. As Armenian Christians, we
must be careful not to follow the kind of erroneous teachings and heterodox
practices that reduce the Christian to a self-contained existence. I cannot
imagine a genuine Christian life, an authentic expression of Christian
faith outside of the community of faith.
d) And finally, keeping firm our faith means translating the faith into
work. As the Apostle points out, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied
by action, is dead” (James 2: 17). Christianity by its very nature and
vocation is action-oriented. Reflections, meditation and prayer need to be
changed into a quality of action that transforms the life of individual and
the community.
We cannot survive in the terrible storm of this world without faith. We
cannot maintain our Christ-based identity in this globalized world without
faith. We cannot preserve our integrity in the midst of morally and
spiritually decaying societies without faith. We must keep firm our faith in
Christ. This is a faith sustained by hope and strengthened by love, a faith
enriched by spirituality and translated into action. This is the real
understanding of Christian faith; this is the kind of faith that we are
called to live out and articulate in our individual and community life.
Therefore, we are called to renew our faith in Him who always remains our
way, our truth and our life (Jn. 14:6).
ARAM I
CATHOLICOS OF CILICIA
12 April 2006
Antelias-Lebanon
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the youth
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.
KVANT COLLEGE RECOGNIZED WINNER IN YEREVAN SUBJECT OLYMPIAD FOR 9th TIME
YEREVAN, APRIL 14, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 14, diplomas and souvenirs
were given to pupils who won in Yerevan city subject olympiad. 269
pupils from more than 70 Yerevan schools received different diplomas,
including 10 pupils that were given diplomas on 3 and more
subjects. In total, 1400 pupils from more than 100 Yerevan schools
took part in the olympiad. The Kvant college for the 9th time received
the first prize of Yerevan Mayor’s Office for the best results. The
second prize was given to the school after Siamanto, the third prize
the school after Dashtents. As Mayor Yervand Zakharian said at the
solemn ceremony at Yerevan Mayor’s Office, events of the kind are an
additional stimulus for pupils’ future progress. According to the
Mayor, year by year not only the activity of Yerevan comprehensive
schools in city olympiads increases but also their pupils take part in
republican and international olympiads and often return with a
victory.
DISGRUNTLED FARMERS CYNICAL ABOUT PROMISED U.S. AID
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 13 2006
By all accounts, Hrant Sargsian is one of hundreds of thousands
of people who are supposed to be the main beneficiaries of $235.65
million in additional economic assistance to Armenia approved by the
United States. He is poor, lives in a rural area, and has trouble
irrigating crops grown on his modest plot of land.
But just like many other residents of Marmarashen, a village in the
southern Ararat region, the 68-year-old subsistence farmer does not
think that his plight will improve as a result of rural infrastructure
projects to be implemented under the U.S. Millennium Challenge Account
(MCA) program. “Charles Aznavour,” explains Sargsian, “too raised
money for Armenia but we didn’t get a single penny.”
“Now they say they want to sort out our drinking water and irrigation,”
he says. “But they won’t. The sum may reach Armenia, but we won’t see
[any benefit of] it.”
The cynicism is echoed by farmers throughout the fruit-growing Ararat
Valley, Armenia’s most developed agricultural region stretching along
its border with Turkey. Long neglected by the regional and central
governments, they have been left alone in coping with enormous problems
that plagued Armenian agriculture following the Soviet collapse.
There is a widely held belief among local residents that much of
external aid to Armenia has been embezzled by corrupt government
officials and that the U.S. aid will not be an exception. The popular
mood in other regions of the country, where farming conditions are
more difficult, is hardly more positive.
“If the entire sum reaches its destination that will be good, but
I am skeptical,” said a farmer in Mkhchian, another Ararat Valley
village. “Only 10 percent of the aid will serve its purpose.”
“How many ministers do we have? They will distribute that money among
themselves,” claimed another local resident.
Armenian and U.S. officials insist that as much as 75 percent of
approximately one million Armenians dependent on farming will directly
benefit from the five-year program. They say Armenia’s widespread
rural poverty will fall by 6 percent as a result. In addition,
the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, which runs the scheme,
has pledged to closely oversee the use of the MCA funds to rule out
their possible misappropriation and other corrupt practices.
Most of the sum, $146 million, will be spent on refurbishing Armenia’s
Soviet-era irrigation networks. Another $67 million would go to
pay for capital repairs of about 1,000 kilometers of rural roads
that have fallen into disrepair over the past decade. A Millennium
Challenge Corporation statement last said that these two projects will
“significantly increase the annual incomes of rural poor.”
But local farmers say better roads and irrigation alone are not a
fundamental solution to their woes. They say they will still lack
access to cheap credit and fertilizers and struggle to pay for
water and the basic utilities. Nor will be they be compensated by
the state anytime soon for hail or cold snaps that regularly destroy
their crops. Agriculture insurance remains practically non-existent
in Armenia.
“As soon as farmers are able to get long-term loans from banks
without any bureaucratic hurdles, they will get on their feet,”
said a Mkhchian farmer. “That would be real poverty reduction.”
For farmers in the village of Masis, a key problem is not so much a
lack of irrigation water as its prohibitive cost. “Water is available
here,” said one of them, Ashot Ghazarian. “But it is so expensive that
villagers can not afford it with proceeds from sales of their produce.”
Ghazarian says this is what prompted him and many other locals to
sell their land and become agricultural laborers. Its main buyer,
commercial farmer Zhora Galstian, already owns more than 100 hectares
(250 acres) of the Masis land, a very big plot by Ararat Valley
standards. But even he is unhappy.
“More villagers come and ask me to buy their land but I don’t want
to,” explains Galstian. “What would I do with it? I already earn few
revenues despite working much harder than any city businessman.”
HEADS OF “GASPROM” AND “ARMRUSGASPROM” DISCUSS BRINGING INTO EFFECT AGREEMENT ON STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES OF COOPERATION IN MOSCOW
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 13 2006
YEREVAN, April 13. /ARKA/. The President of “Gasprom”Alexei Miller and
General Manager of the “ArmRusgasprom” CJSC Karen Karapetyan discussed
bringing into effect agreement on strategic principles of cooperation
between the holding and the RA Government the overnight in Moscow.
According to the Public Information Department of the “Gasprom”, during
the working meeting Miller and Karapetyan paid special attention to
the issue of purchase and accomplishment of the Hrazdan HPP’s 5th
block for effective gas processing into electricity on the territory
of the republic.
On April 6, “Gasprom” and the RA Government signed an agreement for
25 years defining strategic principles of cooperation in gas-energy
projects on the territory of Armenia. The document envisages purchase
of the 5th power-unit of the Hrazdan heat power plant (Hrazdan-5)
from the RA Government by the “ArmRusgasprom” CJSC, as well as objects
of gas sphere of the republic. The agreement fixes the possibility
of exporting electricity produced by Hrazdan-5. It also fixes the
price for the Russian gas imported to Armenia equal to $110 for 1
thsd cubic meters of gas till January 2009.
Preliminary agreements on sell-purchase of must be signed till April
14, 2006, and the final passing of the property must be finished till
January 1, 2007.
TARIFF OF 1 CUBIC METER OF WATER TO BECOME 172.8 DRAMS FROM JUNE 1
Noyan Tapan
Apr 12 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Starting June 1, the tariff of 1 cubic
meter of water will become 172.8 drams (about 0.38 USD) instead of
the current 125 drams. NT correspondent was informed from the press
service of the State Water Industry Committee of the RA Ministry of
Territorial Administration that General des Eaux company (France),
which leases Yerevan Water Canal company (henceforth Yerevan Water),
has already submitted a water tariff increase bid to the RA Public
Services Regulatory Commission. Having leased the water supply and
sewerage systems of the area which was serviced by Water Canal,
the French company has already set new tariffs for the next 10
years. The tender package of General des Eaux envisages a change in
water tariffs in case of changes in electricity tariffs, currency rates
and inflation, while the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission only
has to approve these tariffs. To recap, within a 20 mln-dollar World
Bank credit program on Yerevan water supply and sewerage, General
des Eaux company will implement a project on improvement of the system.
US PLANS TO HELP ARMENIA OVERCOME POVERTY IN AGRARIAN SECTOR
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 12, 2006 Wednesday 03:45 PM EST
U.S. delegation arrived in Yerevan on Wednesday to present a grant
provided by the U.S. administration to Armenia under the Millennium
Challenges programme.
The 235 million U.S. dollar grant will be used to fight poverty in
Armenia’s agrarian sector.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan received the delegation to thank
the U.S. government for its financial assistance. He believes that
the programme “is very important, because it may help to bridge the
gap in living standards between the capital and rural areas.”
The Chairman of the Appropriation Subcommittee for Foreign Assistance
at the U.S. House of Representatives, Jim Kolbe, said at a news
conference that the South Caucasus is the region that has a bright
future and may develop successfully if there is peace between its
countries.
He said the U.S. would not have started the programme, had it been
not confident of Armenia’s committment to free and fair parliamentary
elections next year and presidential elections in 2008, Kolbe said.
The U.S. will closely watch the implmentation of the programme and
reforms in Armenia, Millennium Challenges Executive Director John
Danilovich said.
ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT REJECTS OPPOSITION PLEA FOR PROBE INTO GAS DEAL
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
10 Apr 06
The Armenian parliament has rejected the idea of setting up an ad hoc
committee to examine the sale of the fifth unit of the Razdan thermal
power plant, Armenian Public TV reported on 10 April. The idea was
proposed by Viktor Dallakyan, the secretary of the opposition Justice
bloc, the report said.
Only 19 MPs signed the request for setting up the committee, whereas
at least 44 signatures are required, the TV said.
HEMODIALYSIS DEPARTMENT OPENS IN VANADZOR HOSPITAL No2
Noyan Tapan
Apr 12 2006
VANADZOR, APRIL 12, NOYAN TAPAN. The Hemodialysis Department opened
on April 11 at the Vanadzor hospital No2. It will give possibility to
people of Lori as well as the marz of Tavush, suffering of nephritic
diseases to get medical assistance at place, instead of leaving for
Yerevan or Gyumri. The German “Fresenius Medical Care” firm presented
the hemodialysis apparatus of the value of 80 thousand evro to the
hospital. According to Karen Adamian, the Director of the hospital,
14 patients already today undergo a cure in the department.